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Twelve questions - and a gong

So the world didn't end on December 21. While the supposed Mayan Apocalypse attracted considerable media attention most of it, before and after, was light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek. The NZ Herald (20 December) marked the occasion by asking NZ Skeptics media contact Vicki Hyde 12 questions - part of a series involving "well-known faces".

Did Vicki have a place to hide post-December 21? "Considering I did, in the past two years, survive comet impacts, the rapture, asteroid fly-bys, an alien invasion, a super volcano eruption - because Yellowstone is about to go any day - and a global tsunami, I think it's business as usual. One strategy I do have sorted, in the event of a natural disaster, is a post-Armageddon survival kit which will last me three weeks instead of the three days Civil Defence recommends."

She had no list of essentials in the event of Planet X crashing into Earth, on the basis that if that happened it would be all over and nothing would be needed. "But I would really like to see the aliens… I'd stick a landing pad out for them."

Upsides for the end of the world included the demise of reality television and Fox TV. "I'm worried that with the slowly expanding broadcasts flowing out into the galaxy, our kudos and credibility will be seriously damaged. Intelligent life? Go figure."

Vicki confessed to an unsupported belief that there was life somewhere out there in the universe. "Any card-carrying sceptic will agree. We have no evidence but we're looking for it."

But there was a dark side to apocalyptic prophecies, she said. "The problem, as we've seen in the past, is that people quit jobs, sell houses, uproot their families and euthanise their pets. There have been suicides based on apocalyptic prophecies… When we had 12.12.12 someone carved a pentagram into the back of a 6-year-old. We might laugh but there are negative outcomes: 50,000 people left Christchurch with Ken Ring's earthquake predictions."

And what abiding wisdom does she hold dear? "There is a golden rule, and the basis of all philosophies and religions, and it's from Shakespeare. Love all, trust a few and harm none."

Good to see one Vicki Cathryn Hyde among the Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours list (NZ Herald, 31 December). The award was for services to science, a significant part of which was her involvement with the NZ Skeptics. Congratulations Vicki.

UFO buzzes Northland

This publication first reported the decline in reported UFO sightings back in issue 77, and again in NZ Skeptic 82. The Telegraph (4 November) has more recently covered the ongoing trend. UFO conventions these days, it reports, have mostly been raking over old accounts like Roswell, with very few major developments in the field in recent decades. A sighting in the Bay of Islands (Northern Advocate, 8 January( is about as good as it gets these days.

Te Haumi resident Rob Clarke says he and his wife saw a pair of bright lights travelling slowly across a clear sky at about 9.40pm on 6 January. He says they were not from a plane because there was no sound, nor did he believe it was a satellite, because there were two lights which at one stage moved closer together.

"I don't believe in little green men, and the strongest thing I'd had was a cup of tea. I'm just interested to know what they were," he said.

Ring wrong again

Anyone relying on Ken Ring's 2013 weather almanac to plan their South Island New Year's holiday will probably be tearing the publication up after only a week. The Greymouth Star (8 January) reports his predictions were "wildly astray" - though he had written that "the driest regions for the South Island for January may be the hydro lakes", rain amounting to 500mm in the Waitaki and Rangitata catchments were probably the heaviest summer falls in several decades.

Ring also failed to mention the torrential downpours on the West Coast that caused severe flooding and slips which closed road and rail links, instead predicting a fine day on 2 January when the storm was at its peak.

The Greymouth Star received a Bravo Award from the NZ Skeptics in 2011 for reporting that that Ring"s prediction of an Alpine Fault rupture and/or extreme weather event to coincide with Hokitika's Wildfoods Festival failed to eventuate. Instead the festival was blessed with warm, sunny weather.

Anti-immunisation group loses charitable status

The Charities Commission has deregistered the Immunisation Awareness Society, meaning it can no longer claim tax exemption as a charity (Dominion Post, 7 November).

The society, which has accused the Health Ministry and district health boards of using "fraud", "discrimination" and "coercion" to push immunisation on children and parents, has been deemed to be primarily a political, rather than a charitable organisation. The society argued it was educating people about immunisation, but the commission disagreed, finding its information was not balanced or neutral.

Hamilton science blogger Darcy Cowan (featured in NZ Skeptic Skeptic 100 and 104) was instrumental in initiating the process which led to the deregistration. He said he was "aghast" to find the society passing itself off as an educational charity.

"It is effectively publicly subsidised speaking when you become a charity, and that does come with strings attached."

The society will now have to pay income tax, and any donations will not be tax-deductible.

Immunisation Advisory Centre spokesman Theo Brandt said the society relied on thoroughly discredited pseudo-science to support its claims.

"While they say they are there to promote informed choice, everything they say is anti-vaccination."

Iridology gets a plug

The NZ Herald (13 November) is once again promoting dodgy alternative health practices. Last summer (NZ Skeptic 102) it was a course of leeches (sorry, 'hirudotherapy'); this time round it's iridology. "Whatever stays in your body rules your life," it gushes. Then follows an entirely uncritical profile on Waiheke naturopath Peter Riddering (contact details at the end of the article). He explains how the iris, made up of muscles and nerves, is connected to the brain and anything that happens in the body is reflected in the eye. According to the article irises are either blue or brown and any other colours between are a corruption of what happens in our life. "For instance if our digestive system is not eliminating all toxins, these will accumulate in the body and show in the iris." Now you know. Groping healer loses appeal A spiritual healer who touched a girl's breasts and called them "beautiful" while treating her for stomach cramps has had his appeal rejected (Stuff, 7 November). Pranic healer Suresh Gobindlal, 57, was convicted of indecent assault on the 16-year-old while treating her for stomach cramps at her house on Christmas Day 2010. Gobindlal's wife and son testified at the trial that despite the 'no-touch' Pranic philosophy, "when practised at higher level the technique can involve touching". Oddly enough, the jury didn't buy it. No pyramid for Hamilton Plans to build a 15-metre-high pyramid on the outskirts of Hamilton have been rejected by a Waikato District Council-appointed commissioner (Waikato Times, 8 January). The "meditation pyramid and community facility" was the brainchild of Morrinsville dentist Rakesh Jogla. It was to be built in three stages, with the pyramid constructed in the first stage. The 435 sq metre pyramid was to have the same proportions as the Great Pyramid of Giza, intended to provide a restful, contemplative environment for meditation. Eight of the nine public submissions opposed the plan, but the council did not comment further about why it was rejected. Actually, in a city with little in the way of distinctive architecture, it could have been quite a landmark.